‘Lots of different ways to educate’ kids

In The New School, Reynolds predicts “the future of American education is rooted in technology, choice and customization,” writes Ryan.

Vouchers, charters, homeschooling and private schools are competing for students, says Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee.

I think the sort of savior for the public school system is charter schools and things that let people exercise a lot of educational choice while within the public school system because when people stay within the public school system they retain loyalty to it, so they are more likely to support taxes for it and they get counted as enrollees for federal funding and the like.

Brick-and-mortar colleges won’t go away, but they’ll also have to compete for students, Reynolds predicts.

There are a lot of older people who really don’t want to go back and spend four years as Joe College and Betty Coed going to classes but need to get an education. . . . Now whether it will also start to cut into the traditional 18 to 22 college population, it’s hard to say but if it’s going to be cost-effective, sure it will. If you’re 18 years old and you can go to college online, and also work in a job and also live at home, your net cost of going to college is vastly lower than if you leave home, go somewhere where you really can’t work much, have to pay to live in a dorm, have to buy a meal plan, and have to pay full tuition.

Reynolds’ daughter “did almost all of her high school” online. She focused on one class at a time. “She finished a year’s worth of work in one class in three weeks of intensive effort instead of little dribs and drabs along the year the way they do in public school.”